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California officials say exoneree shouldn’t be compensated because he pled guilty
Posted: July 25, 2007 4:57 pm
James Ochoa was 20 years old when he pled guilty to a carjacking he didn’t commit in order to avoid a 25-year-to-life sentence the judge threatened him with if he was convicted. With a guilty plea, he was sentenced to two years in prison. Ten months into his prison term, DNA evidence proved that another man committed the crime. Ochoa was released and exonerated.
Now Ochoa is seeking compensation under a law in California that grants about $100 per day of wrongful incarceration to those wrongfully imprisoned and later proven innocent. The law says that exonerees who “contributed to” their conviction don’t qualify for compensation. Because Ochoa pled guilty prosecutors are saying that he contributed to his conviction.
A column in the Los Angeles Times calls for Ochoa to be compensated with no more delay:
The cops, the district attorney and a judge already have had their fun with James Ochoa, behaving like dogs with a chew toy. Now it's the attorney general's turn to snarl, take a bite or two, and fling him around some more.Read a blog post on this topic from Reason Magazine.
All in the name of justice, of course.
Read the full column here. (06/30/2007)
A hearing on Ochoa's compensation claim is scheduled for October 11.
Read more about Ochoa’s case.
Tags: James Ochoa, Exoneree Compensation
Six years of freedom for Ohio man
Posted: October 15, 2007 10:40 am
Anthony Michael Green celebrates the sixth anniversary of his exoneration this Thursday. He was released from prison on October 18, 2001, having spent 13 years behind bars for a rape and robbery he did not commit.
Green’s wrongful conviction was based partly on false testimony from a Cleveland Police Department Forensic Lab expert. At Green’s trial, the expert testified that serological testing performed on a washcloth left at the scene proved that Green could have been the attacker. Further, the expert told the jury that only 16 percent of men could have left this stain. Because the victim and Green had the same blood type, this statistic was false.
In 2001, DNA testing conducted upon the request of the Innocence Project proved Green’s innocence beyond a doubt. Forensic science misconduct is one of the major causes of wrongful convictions.
Read more about Green’s case.
Other exoneration anniversaries this week:
Friday: James Ochoa, California (Served 10 months, Exonerated 10/19/2006)
Tags: Anthony Michael Green, James Ochoa
California exoneree continues to fight for compensation
Posted: March 6, 2008 10:16 am
James Ochoa served 10 months in a California prison for a carjacking he didn’t commit. He pled guilty to avoid a possible life sentence. In 2006, DNA evidence proved his innocence and exonerated him. He has applied for compensation under state law, but documents obtained by the Innocence Project show that state officials are seeking to deny Ochoa his compensation because he pled guilty.
A final decision is expected at the April 17 meeting of the California Victim Compensation and Government Claims Board, but a proposed decision says that “Ochoa has not met the statutory requirements to receive compensation under Penal Code section 4900 because he contributed to his conviction by pleading guilty.”
Ochoa has argued that he pled guilty to avoid a possible life sentence. Scott Baugh, a former California lawmaker who authored an amendment to the compensation law, told the Los Angeles Times last June that Ochoa should definitely be compensated under the law.
"I find it outrageous," Baugh told the Times "that you can force someone into a Hobson's choice of 25 years to life or pleading to a crime he didn't commit and spending two years in prison, and call it a voluntary decision. Even if the judge said nothing, he's facing 25 years to life or a two-year plea bargain.”
Read more about Ochoa’s case here.
In a report issued last month, the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice specifically addressed the guilty plea loophole: “The exception should not include those who were victims of false confessions or improperly induced guilty pleas. It should be limited to those who intentionally subverted the judicial process.”
Read the full CCFAJ report here.
Tags: California, James Ochoa, Exoneree Compensation
Signs of prosecutorial misconduct in California exoneration case
Posted: March 14, 2008 3:07 pm
James Ochoa spent 10 months in California prison for a carjacking he didn’t commit before he was exonerated in 2006 because DNA proved that another man committed the crime. New evidence revealed yesterday shows that prosecutors asked the Orange County Sheriff’s Department crime lab to falsify evidence that would help convict Ochoa.
An article in the Orange County Weekly details the alleged prosecutorial misconduct before Ochoa pled guilty in the case – in what he says was an effort to avoid a harsh sentence.
In the wake of a November 2005 OC Weekly article detailing how a 20-year-old Buena Park man faced prison for a robbery /carjacking he didn’t commit, prosecutors asked the Orange County Sheriff’s Department crime lab to alter key exculpatory evidence.Read more about Ochoa’s case here.
Veteran forensic specialist Danielle G. Wieland made the charge last month during a civil deposition related to the December 2005 wrongful conviction and imprisonment of James Ochoa, according to documents obtained by the Weekly.
In a civil deposition taken last month for Ochoa’s wrongful-prosecution lawsuit, Ochoa attorney Patricio A. Marquez of Morrison & Foerster asked Wieland, “Did anyone ever exert pressure on you to change your [DNA] conclusions?”
“Yes,” Wieland replied. “Camille Hill from the DA’s office . . . She called me and asked me to change the conclusion that Mr. Ochoa was eliminated from [DNA found on] the left cuff of the shirt.”
According to the transcript, Hill told Wieland she “didn’t care” about the crime lab’s findings. “I want him [Ochoa] not excluded,” Wieland recalls Hill saying.
The DA’s demand alarmed crime-lab officials, who began to question why prosecutors were so “adamant” and “ranting” (Wieland’s description) about nailing Ochoa.
“I was pretty shocked and annoyed,” Wieland testified. “As a forensic scientist, we just look at the evidence.”
Read the full story here. (OC Weekly, 03/13/08)
Tags: James Ochoa
California columnist: State aims to save pennies by refusing exoneree compensation
Posted: March 18, 2008 11:25 am
California exoneree James Ochoa is seeking $31,700 in compensation for the 10 months he spent in prison for a carjacking that DNA proves he didn’t commit, but state officials have announced that they plan to deny his request because he pled guilty. The law states that an exoneree can be compensated if he didn’t “contribute to his conviction.” Although state representatives involved in drafting the law have said excluding guilty pleas wasn’t the intent of the law, a hearing officer in charge of compensation claims is citing this clause in his recommendation to deny Ochoa’s claim. A final hearing in the case is set for April.
Los Angeles Times columnist Dana Parsons writes today that the state is making a mistake to deny Ochoa’s claim:
With California in financial trouble (who isn’t?), I thought you’d like to know how the state is saving you money. It could have agreed to pay James Ochoa $31,700 for doing 10 months in the state pen for a carjacking he didn’t commit.Read the March 6 Innocence Blog post on this case.
It said no…
Ochoa, then 20, was arrested at his Buena Park home in May 2005 not long after a robbery-carjacking outside a nearby nightclub. The victims described the carjacker and an officer thought it matched Ochoa, whom he’d recognized from an earlier stop. The two victims were taken to Ochoa’s home and identified him as he sat in his driveway. Before the trial that December, however, DNA testing by the Orange County crime lab excluded Ochoa as the person inside the victim’s car, which had been recovered. Unbowed, the district attorney’s office proceeded with the case….
To avoid the possibility of a life sentence for a crime he knew he didn’t do, Ochoa took a two-year deal. He was 20, had a bogus eyewitness identification staring him in the face and wasn’t too keen on a potential lifetime sentence.
What would you do?
Read the full column here. (LA Times, 03/18/08)
Read more about James Ochoa’s case.
Tags: California, James Ochoa
California exoneree will be compensated
Posted: April 23, 2008 4:02 pm
A California board voted today to award $30,000 in compensation to James Ochoa for the 10 months he spent in prison for a carjacking he didn’t commit. Ochoa was exonerated in 2006 when DNA testing on evidence from the crime scene proved his innocence. He pled guilty to the crime to avoid the possibility of a long sentence if convicted at trial.
California law provides $100 per day of wrongful incarceration, but only if the defendant did not “contribute to the bringing about of his arrest or conviction.” A hearing officer’s report submitted to the board argued that Ochoa should be denied compensation because his guilty plea brought about his wrongful conviction. The board voted in favor of granting the compensation, however.
"Every step of the way James had been screwed by government authorities. Finally, this board stood up and did the right thing," Ochoa lawyer Scott Borthwick said immediately after the hearing.An author of the compensation law and the state innocence commission have both said that the “guilty plea loophole” needs to be removed to ensure that people like Ochoa don’t need to argue for compensation in future cases.
Read more. (OC Weekly blog, 04/23/08)
Read more about Ochoa’s case here.
Tags: James Ochoa
Compensation bill for California man is on governor's desk
Posted: August 29, 2008 2:38 pm
James Ochoa served 10 months in California prison, and 5 months in jail awaiting trial, for a carjacking DNA proves he didn’t commit. He was exonerated in 2006, but to date he hasn’t been compensated under California’s law – which pays exonerees $100 per day of wrongful imprisonment. As we’ve reported here before, Ochoa was initially denied access to compensation because he pled guilty – after a judge told him he could get 25 years to life in prison if he went to trial and lost. He was given a two-year sentence after pleading guilty.
The California compensation statute reads that, in order to receive compensation, the exoneree must not have “contribute(d) to the bringing about of his arrest or conviction for the crime with which he was charged." California officials first said the law excluded Ochoa because he pled guilty. But members of the state assembly took action to rectify this situation, and a bill to pay Ochoa $31,700 was passed earlier this month. The bill now awaits a signature by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
An improvement to California’s compensation law – which would eliminate the loophole that almost denied Ochoa’s compensation and increase the amount of compensation by a cost-of-living adjustment each year – is also awaiting the Governor’s signature. Republican Assemblyman Todd Spitzer discussed Ochoa's case in a recent speech in support of improvements to the general compensation law.
“As a society we have a responsibility to make that [injustice] right,” Republican Assemblyman Todd Spitzer said...“To be wrongfully charged, to sit in prison for 10 months and also Orange County Jail for an additional five months] for $31,700? That's unconscionable.”Innocence Project supporters in California are sending letters to Gov. Schwarzenegger this week urging him to sign the bill into law. If you’re in California – send your own letter to the Governor today. Otherwise, please forward the action to your friends and family in California.
Read the full blog post here. (OC Weekly)
Tags: California, James Ochoa
Exoneree: Crime Labs Should Be Independent
Posted: October 28, 2008 11:55 am
James Ochoa spent nearly two years in California prison for a carjacking he didn’t commit before DNA testing proved his innocence and led police to the real perpetrator. After Ochoa’s exoneration, news reports revealed that prosecutors attempted to exert pressure on a crime lab analyst to falsify the test results to say that he hadn’t been cleared.
Now the same prosecutor’s office is seeking partial control of the county crime lab, and Ochoa argues that his case should be enough reason to maintain independence at the lab. He sent a letter yesterday to the Orange County Board of Supervisors, which today is considering a proposal to create a three-member panel, including the district attorney, to control the county’s forensic lab. The letter reads, in part:
The fact that the prosecution proceeded with my case in order to protect their image when they knew they had insufficient evidence demonstrated to me that the District Attorney’s office is willing to go too far. After what happened to me, it is pretty clear that the District Attorney doesn’t care about guilt or innocence; he cares about his career.Read more about the lab dispute here.
Read Ochoa’s full letter here.
Tags: California, James Ochoa
California DA Wins Partial Control of Crime Lab
Posted: October 29, 2008 11:04 am
The Orange County Board of Supervisors voted 5-0 yesterday to award oversight of the country’s forensic labs to a three-member panel comprised of the District Attorney, County Sheriff and County CEO. The Innocence Project has argued that if prosecutors oversee forensic testing, politics could take precedence over science. And a report in the OC Weekly made it clear that the prosecutor’s office inappropriately pressed an analyst to alter the forensic report – despite DNA testing that clearly exonerated Ochoa.
Veteran forensic specialist Danielle G. Wieland made the charge last month during a civil deposition related to the December 2005 wrongful conviction and imprisonment of James Ochoa, according to documents obtained by the Weekly.Before its vote yesterday, the board received a letter from Ochoa, who served nearly two years in California prison for a carjacking he didn’t commit. He wrote:
In a civil deposition taken last month for Ochoa’s wrongful-prosecution lawsuit, Ochoa attorney Patricio A. Marquez of Morrison & Foerster asked Wieland, “Did anyone ever exert pressure on you to change your [DNA] conclusions?”
“Yes,” Wieland replied. “Camille Hill from the DA’s office … She called me and asked me to change the conclusion that Mr. Ochoa was eliminated from [DNA found on] the left cuff of the shirt.”
The fact that the prosecution proceeded with my case in order to protect their image when they knew they had insufficient evidence demonstrated to me that the District Attorney’s office is willing to go too far. After what happened to me, it is pretty clear that the District Attorney doesn’t care about guilt or innocence; he cares about his career.Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas disputed the allegation of impropriety at Tuesday’s hearing:
Read Ochoa’s full letter here.
Rackauckas explained to the board that his prosecutor merely questioned the analyst about her conclusion and did not try to influence her.And an editorial in the OC Register before the board meeting said “Orange County's efforts to safeguard the public and protect the innocent have been caught up in an ugly turf war between the District Attorney's Office and the Sheriff's Department”
"(But) once an allegation is made, it can be pretty hard for the other party to disprove it," Rackauckas said.
Read the full article here. (OC Register, 10/28/08)
Officials at the Innocence Project, which uses DNA evidence to free the wrongly convicted, rightly told the newspaper that it's a conflict of interest for district attorneys to control DNA and other forms of evidence. "Just like we wouldn't want a defense attorney to call the shots in a lab, we wouldn't want a prosecutor," said one Innocence Project spokesman.
That's exactly right. Prosecutors are interested parties in legal proceedings. They are seeking convictions, so it would be unwise to let any D.A. control such important evidence. In fact, as the Register also reported, "A senior [Orange County]prosecutor is alleged to have pressured a sheriff's analyst to change her conclusion in a carjacking case that kept an innocent man imprisoned for 16 months." That's chilling.Read the full editorial here. (OC Register, 10/23/08)
Tags: California, James Ochoa
Scent Lineups and Unvalidated Science
Posted: June 30, 2009 5:16 pm
Dog scent evidence has contributed to at least three wrongful convictions later overturned by DNA testing, and two new lawsuits in Texas allege that three police dogs working with the Fort Bend County’s Sheriff’s Department implicated innocent people in failed “scent lineups.” Both men have been cleared, but the controversy over the validity of dog scent evidence continues. A new USA Today article examines the Texas lawsuits and the controversy over whether dog scent evidence should be allowed in criminal trials:
The legal challenges are "a first for us," says Randall Morse, an assistant county attorney who is representing (dog handler Keith) Pikett. He says the hounds have worked about 2,000 cases across the country, including the search for Olympic Park bomber Eric Rudolph.Unvalidated forensic science such as dog scent evidence has been involved in about half of the 240 wrongful convictions overturned to date in the United States. A National Academy of Sciences report released this year calls for the creation of a federal agency to support and oversee forensics to prevent wrongful convictions and ensure public safety .
Defense lawyers say the (scent lineup) technique smacks of forensic voodoo and casts further suspicion on the broader use of scent dog evidence.
"It's a fraud on so many levels," says Jeffrey Weiner, former president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.
Read the full story here. (USA Today, 06/30/09)
The Innocence Project supports the creation of a federal Office of Forensic Science Improvement and Support
and thousands of people have joined the campaign by signing the Just Science Coalition’s petition calling for federal forensic oversight. Add your name now.
Read more about the three men who were wrongfully convicted based in part on dog scent evidence and then exonerated by DNA testing:
Wilton Dedge, Florida
William Dillon, Florida
James Ochoa, California
Tags: Wilton Dedge, William Dillon, James Ochoa, Unvalidated/Improper Forensics
James Ochoa: Three Years Free, a New Start in Texas
Posted: October 23, 2009 2:01 pm
Three years ago this week, James Ochoa was exonerated after serving 10 months in prison for a crime he didn't commit. He was freed when the profile of another man in a DNA database matched evidence from the crime for which Ochoa was convicted.
Ochoa now lives in Texas with his wife and children and works in sales for a clothing company.
Ochoa became a suspect in a 2005 Buena Park, California, carjacking after a highly questionable eyewitness identification procedure and involvement of a police scent-tracking dog.
After two young men were carjacked, they described the perpetrator to a police officer, who immediately thought of Ochoa, whom he had seen earlier that night nearby. The officer showed the victims a picture of Ochoa from his laptop computer. One victim saw only a picture of Ochoa; the other saw photographs of Ochoa's two friends (who did not resemble the description just taken) first and then Ochoa. Both victims said Ochoa "looked like" the perpetrator.
The car was found in the neighborhood later that night -- a B.B. gun used in the crime and a hat worn by the perpetrator were inside. A bloodhound dog named "Trace" was brought to the scene. Trace allegedly followed the scent from a swab from the perpetrator's baseball cap to Ochoa's front door. The use of dog sniffing evidence has come under fire in several states in recent months.
Ochoa was charged with the crime, despite DNA test results that showed one profile on the hat and gun, excluding Ochoa. Against the advice of his attorney, Ochoa accepted a guilty plea in exchange for a two-year sentence, after a judge threatened him with a 25-year sentence if convicted by a jury.
Ten months later, another man was arrested in Los Angeles on unrelated carjacking charges. His DNA profile matched the profile from the hat and gun in Ochoa's case and he confessed to committing the crime. Ochoa was freed after ten months in prison.
Read more about his case - as well as with background on eyewitness misidentification and unvalidated science.
Other exoneree anniversaries this week:
Edward Honaker, Virginia (Served 9.5 years/Exonerated 10/21/94)
Fredric Saecker, Wisconsin (Served 6 years/Exonerated 10/24/96)
Victor Ortiz, New York (Served 11.5 years - exonerated 10/24/96)
Tags: James Ochoa